Search

This paper looks at the range of prices and customer ratings that can be find on the web for a piece of software or some other information technology commodity. The simulation of search and purchase were conducted in three categories: network devices, personal computer hardware and packaged software. This is a price-hunting key--be sure to compare items that are truly the same in size, memory, speed and options. Of the six test sites, eBay turned up the lowest price, with a single new Cisco 831 Ethernet router listed at $349. Among the other sites, Shopzilla came up with the next-best price: $366, offered by a seller with certification from the site and more than 300 customer reviews. Shopzilla provided a total of 33 sellers for the Cisco 831, with prices ranging from $366 to $546. The best price tag for the Toshiba Tecra A2-S119 notebook personal computer was on Shopping.com, where a dealer listed the notebook at $879. But that price turned out to be a red herring, because the dealer wanted $29 for shipping. The next-best price was a deal listed identically on Shopping.com, Pricegrabber.com and Shopzilla: an offer of $895, from Buy.com. EBay listed three units ranging from $950 to $1,050, but the low price came from a seller with just five feedback ratings, only four of them positive. INSET: MAKING CENTS OF IT PRICING.

The article reports that in print publishing, one cannot physically change what has been set to paper, though the publisher may issue a revision or update. But online publishing, apparently, is a different story. In the past month, the author says that they have witnessed several acts of "unpublishing" by popular web comics creators: Controversial or critical articles that were posted on these Web sites were taken offline-or completely rewritten. The original posts vanished from those sites. It is one thing to correct inaccurate data, but unpublishing controversial material is cowardly. Critics and bloggers who respond to the previously published materials are left to debate in a vacuum, as the original document vanishes without a trace. The deletion of criticism from user forums is misleading and deceptive. Online publishers should be held to the same standards as print publishers, or the value of online content will be significantly diminished.

The article reports on the U.S. study posted on Gizmondo.com, which states that computer ink is more expensive than blood. According to the study, the per-milliliter cost of an HP 45 printer cartridge is 71 cents per ml. In addition, it states that a 42-ml cartridge of black ink costs $30, while a 500-ml unit of blood from the Red Cross is $200. Included in the poster is the calculation of the price-per-ml of other precious fluids, which include oil, bottled water and vodka. The study has found out that ink tops them all.